Detectives investigate historic sex abuse at Pontins in Blackpool

Police are investigating reports a nine-year-old girl was sexually assaulted at Pontins in Blackpool in the early 1980s.

Lancashire Police today said the alleged abuse was reported to management at the time, but a formal complaint was only made to police earlier this year when the victim, now in her 40s, finally came forward.

It said the woman, from Slough, was holidaying at the park, possibly in 1981.

Extensive enquiries have so far failed to identify the alleged offender, and Det Con John Hope-Ross, of Blackpool CID, said: “We are appealing to anyone who worked at Pontins Blackpool during the early 1980s to come forward.”

The 37 acre holiday park, in Clifton Drive North, catered for 2,000 people and closed in 2009. It has since been demolished to make way for hundreds of new homes.